What do we mean by a neighborhood?
NeighborhoodScout® uses the official government designation for neighborhoods - the census tract.
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in conjunction with local authorities all across the country to define real neighborhoods that are bounded to contain areas with homogeneous population characteristics (including economic status, lifestyle, and living conditions). Census tracts usually have 4,000 persons, but can range between 1,500 and 8,000 persons. This is the most fine-grained area for which detailed information is made available from the government, to protect the individual privacy of each of us. Because census tracts are based on population, they vary in size depending on the density of settlement. In urban areas, they are small, and in rural areas they can cover an entire small town or even a few small towns in very rural areas.
Since census tracts are subdivisions of a county, we did a spatial overlay of the census tracts onto city and town boundaries using a geographic information system to properly assign each census tract to its appropriate city or town. Then we named each census tract to the local colloquially recognized neighborhood name for that spot (e.g., Boston, MA (Dorchester). If there was not a name available, we named the census tract by the largest street intersection in the census tract (e.g., Worcester, MA (Lincoln St/Plantation St)
Why we don't use Zip Codes as neighborhoods
Zip codes were developed by the Postal Service for the purpose of delivering mail, but were never intended to define coherent neighborhoods. In addition, Zip Codes can have as many as 10 distinctly different census tracts contained within them. When distinct census tracts are blended together in a single Zip Code, the data reflects their average conditions and often gives a false sense of the area. The result is that potentially great matching neighborhoods can be missed, and erroneous matches can also be produced and delivered to you.
Using census tracts makes great matches possible, and helps people find the areas that are best for them and their families. Because we are committed to providing the highest possible quality and finding the neighborhoods that best meet your criteria, we use census tracts. And, as always, we show you the actual street map of the neighborhood so you know exactly where your best matching neighborhood is located.
What is a Condition Alert?
A condition alert is a condition in the neighborhood that triggers an alert. NeighborhoodScout contains condition alerts to highlight conditions that are extreme, whether good or bad. This helps answer crucial questions about the state of the neighborhood being evaluated, such as:
What are the risks of violent crime here?
Is the risk of home break-ins or other property crimes increasing?
Does real estate here hold its value?
Are the trends in local vacancies or unemployment concerning?
...and dozens more.
Information at a glance that you need to know to invest, appraise or finance a property.
Fresh Pond median real estate price is $1,141,050, which is more expensive than 77.7% of the neighborhoods in New York and 92.5% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Fresh Pond is currently $3,570, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 62.9% of the neighborhoods in New York.
Fresh Pond is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Queens, New York.
Fresh Pond real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Fresh Pond neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Real estate vacancies in Fresh Pond are 5.5%, which is lower than one will find in 62.8% of American neighborhoods. Demand for real estate in Fresh Pond is above average for the U.S., and may signal some demand for either price increases or new construction of residential product for this neighborhood.
Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Queens, the Fresh Pond neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Real Estate
What you'll find when you visit or move to this neighborhood is one of the most crowded neighborhoods in all of America. With an incredible 67,511 people per square mile, it is more densely populated than 99.1% of America's neighborhoods. Even if you drive or take transit to your place of employment, many people enjoy being able to walk in their neighborhood. What many people don't realize is that most of America's premier vacation locations are also very walkable. The Fresh Pond neighborhood is among the top 5% of American neighborhoods in terms of walkability.
In addition, 93.1% of the real estate in the Fresh Pond neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America.
Furthermore, three-deckers, duplexes, old Victorian homes cut up into apartments. Independent stores on the corner selling pizza. These are some of the hallmarks of neighborhoods with lots of small 2, 3, and 4 unit apartment buildings. The Fresh Pond neighborhood really stands out in this regard, however, as it is dominated by such small apartment buildings more than nearly any other neighborhood in America. This is a stunning visual and lifestyle example of this type of neighborhood. In fact, 41.1% of the real estate here are small 2, 3, or 4 unit apartment buildings, which is a higher proportion than found in 97.3% of America's neighborhoods.
Also of note, if you find historic homes and neighborhoods attractive, you love the details, the history, and the charm, then you are sure to be interested in this neighborhood. With 68.8% of the residential real estate in the Fresh Pond neighborhood built no later than 1939, and some built considerably earlier, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of historic residences than 98.4% of all neighborhoods in America. In this regard, this neighborhood truly stands out as special.
Modes of Transportation
In the Fresh Pond neighborhood, 54.0% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 99.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
Car Ownership
American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Fresh Pond neighborhood buck this trend. 51.1% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Diversity
Did you know that the Fresh Pond neighborhood has more Romanian and South American ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Romanian ancestry and 15.1% have South American ancestry.
Fresh Pond is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 12.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Polish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.9% of the neighborhoods in America.
The Neighbors
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the Fresh Pond neighborhood in Queens are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 53.7% of the neighborhoods in America. With 36.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 86.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the Fresh Pond neighborhood, 34.5% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 29.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (22.0%), and 13.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
Languages
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the Fresh Pond neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 40.7% of households. Other important languages spoken here include English, Polish, Italian and Chinese.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the Fresh Pond neighborhood in Queens, NY, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as South American (15.1%). There are also a number of people of Puerto Rican ancestry (14.3%), and residents who report Italian roots (6.3%), and some of the residents are also of Dominican ancestry (5.9%), along with some French ancestry residents (4.3%), among others. In addition, 36.3% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Getting to Work
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in Fresh Pond neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (51.8% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (54.0%) take the train to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (15.7%) and 7.5% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. This neighborhood is distinguished by the high number of residents who take the train to work each day, which can be a very good way to get to work at a lower cost and with less pollution.
SCOUT’s patented match algorithm identifies the most similar neighborhoods to a subject location, and quantifies the similarity to the subject location. This allows analysts to identify the most similar neighborhoods in a local market area for appraisals, investments, and research.
The algorithm uses 273 neighborhood conditions, identifies the dominant dimensions underlying the conditions and calculates the similarity. This captures the true culture and character of locations, economic conditions, and trends.
The closer to 100% means the locations are nearly identical. 80% is a very good, but not excellent match, and so forth.
